CULTURE SHOCKS:
1. When earthquakes happen EVERYONE leaves their houses and they go to the nearest local coffee shop. Hahaa it is super interesting.
2. Albanians don't let their visitors take their shoes off in their houses!! However, if you insist, then they MAKE you wear slippers!!
3. Each city in Albania has an origin name... for example I am a Utahn...but if you are from Durres=Durresake, Korça= Korçare, or Tirana= Tironës etc etc. SO COOL.
FUNNIES:
1. This week we got to celebrate a birthday for one of our elders!!:)) Well, Sister Long decided to make a cake during our English class so that we could celebrate afterwards... well... it EXPLODED!!!!! Hahahaha that was a super fun birthday surprise let me tell ya... we had a fun celebration eating a glob of cake covered in frosting while playing many different instruments (including a kazoo, harmonica, drums, and whistles) to the tune we all know and love... shumë urime për ty:)
2. During our fun grave finding adventure we asked a random worker man to help us find one of the grave stones!!! Well, Albanian graveyards are not your typical graveyards I will tell you that much. Most the time they just bury their relatives in their backyard but this time we found a HUGE graveyard full of graves but also full of a bunch of random holes for "soon to be graves". The grounds aren't very well taken care of... well as we were walking with one of the workers he was super upset that we couldn't find the person we were looking for! He suddenly took off running to go look at this one headstone and BOOM he just dropped out of sight! Hahah it was hilarious but kinda spooky in all honesty. There was a whole and he just fell right down into it!! Hahaha oh man, thankfully he got out and wasn't buried alive or anything. FREAKY!!!
3. We had the most interesting interaction this week. We were talking to some people when suddenly we were interrupted by 5 Indian dressed men with long black hair and dream catchers and feathers everywhere! They were from Peru and were here to play their music for people in the streets! They knew very little English and no Albanian so I am very confused as to why they were here... however, we were able to teach them about The Book of Mormon and we told them we could give them books in Spanish because they were super interested!!! It was the weirdest mix of English/Spanish/Albanian and I still am laughing about that interaction. It was awesome.
SPIRITUAL WONDERFULNESS:
This week we had a POWERFUL zone conference talking about the POWER of our testimonies. The coolest thing about sharing testimonies is that we can share them at ANY TIME, in ANY PLACE, and with ANYONE. Our testimonies grow as we show willingness to serve in the church and to study, pray, and learn. It increases as we obey God’s commandments! Our testimonies also grow as they are shared. This is the time that we must prepare to meet God and we can do so by developing strong testimonies. Alma 32:27 says, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even IF YE CAN NO MORE THAN DESIRE TO BELIEVE, LET THIS DESIRE WORK IN YOU, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Our testimonies start with a desire to believe!!! Happiness in this life and in the life to come begins with a testimony of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love love love being a missionary. I love love love that we have the opportunity to grow, learn, and develop strong testimonies of God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. HE LIVES. FIND HIM IN YOUR LIVES. HE LOVES YOU. AND I LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK <3
Love, Motra Sëtën
Adriatic South Mission
P.O. Box 2984
Bulevardi Gjergj Fishta
Qendra ALPAS
Shkalla NR. 5 Apartamenti NR.14
Tirana, Albania
Pics: zone conf with my cutie companion, CLOUDS, FLOWERS, beaching, fun hike
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